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Sprint Cup
CUP: MIS Is Wide, And That’s Good
The 2-mile Michigan International Speedway will play host to Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race...
Michigan International Speedway is the site of two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
It’s probably a fortunate thing that this weekend’s Sprint Cup race is at Michigan International Speedway.
Michigan is fast, but it also is wide. Very wide.
Very good.
The guys may need more room this week.
Here’s Tony Stewart, answering questions Sunday after an eventful closing run at Pocono:
“I’ve seen some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen in my life in a professional series right here today. So for anybody that’s looking for drama for the next couple races, start looking, because I can promise I’m going to start making the highlight reel the next couple weeks.”
Stewart sometimes overstates himself when he’s irritable, but you get the point.
Then there’s the recently rekindled war of words and bumpers between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, who got off the quote of the year to date Sunday by stepping outside his previously polite self and claiming that Harvick’s wife, Delana, is the one who wears the firesuit in the family.
And, of course, there’s the uneasy truce between teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, two guys who, if their excellent seasons continue, could be racing each other for the championship on the last lap at Homestead.
And AJ Allmendinger might arrive in town with a target on his back after causing a gargantuan crash on Pocono’s final lap.
Yes, good thing MIS is wide. Very wide.
“Michigan is fun just because of the fact that you can race from the wall to the bottom of the race track,” Harvick said. “The tires fall off a lot, so you have to have a good handling car. If your car is not handling like you need it to, then there’s options to move around the race track and try to find a groove that helps your car work better.”
Or to find a groove where grumpy drivers aren’t.
The difference maker at Michigan, said veteran Mark Martin, usually isn’t power but handling.
“It has huge corners, and the straightaways are long, but everybody’s got what they got under the hood, and you can’t make a big difference there,” he said. “But you can certainly make a big difference about those big corners, and so the opportunity is there for excelling. Maybe your car handles, and you have lots of options of where to drive it on the race track and finding something that works for you.”
A driver who often needs a lot of space – Kyle Busch – sees a lot at MIS.
“It’s wide-open racing, and you can run from top to bottom,” he said. “The biggest thing is just trying to get grip there. Some guys are able to get it, other guys can’t. You can get it for maybe five laps, and then you’re just out to lunch.
“The wide race track is good. That’s what makes Michigan so exciting and so fun. That’s the biggest deal about it.”
Practice and qualifying are scheduled at MIS Friday.
Release the hounds.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Michigan is fast, but it also is wide. Very wide.
Very good.
The guys may need more room this week.
Here’s Tony Stewart, answering questions Sunday after an eventful closing run at Pocono:
“I’ve seen some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen in my life in a professional series right here today. So for anybody that’s looking for drama for the next couple races, start looking, because I can promise I’m going to start making the highlight reel the next couple weeks.”
Stewart sometimes overstates himself when he’s irritable, but you get the point.
Then there’s the recently rekindled war of words and bumpers between Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano, who got off the quote of the year to date Sunday by stepping outside his previously polite self and claiming that Harvick’s wife, Delana, is the one who wears the firesuit in the family.
And, of course, there’s the uneasy truce between teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, two guys who, if their excellent seasons continue, could be racing each other for the championship on the last lap at Homestead.
And AJ Allmendinger might arrive in town with a target on his back after causing a gargantuan crash on Pocono’s final lap.
Yes, good thing MIS is wide. Very wide.
“Michigan is fun just because of the fact that you can race from the wall to the bottom of the race track,” Harvick said. “The tires fall off a lot, so you have to have a good handling car. If your car is not handling like you need it to, then there’s options to move around the race track and try to find a groove that helps your car work better.”
Or to find a groove where grumpy drivers aren’t.
The difference maker at Michigan, said veteran Mark Martin, usually isn’t power but handling.
“It has huge corners, and the straightaways are long, but everybody’s got what they got under the hood, and you can’t make a big difference there,” he said. “But you can certainly make a big difference about those big corners, and so the opportunity is there for excelling. Maybe your car handles, and you have lots of options of where to drive it on the race track and finding something that works for you.”
A driver who often needs a lot of space – Kyle Busch – sees a lot at MIS.
“It’s wide-open racing, and you can run from top to bottom,” he said. “The biggest thing is just trying to get grip there. Some guys are able to get it, other guys can’t. You can get it for maybe five laps, and then you’re just out to lunch.
“The wide race track is good. That’s what makes Michigan so exciting and so fun. That’s the biggest deal about it.”
Practice and qualifying are scheduled at MIS Friday.
Release the hounds.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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